


Safe and Warm

by PartiPooper



Category: South Park
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon ages, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Jewpacabra, Kyle is Eric's miracle, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:15:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23615077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PartiPooper/pseuds/PartiPooper
Summary: Eric somehow wakes up in bed after passing out at the park, and the explanation for this magic trick wakes up next to him.(This is a reinvention of the rescue scene from S16E04 'Jewpacabra'. What if Kyle hadn't gone home after tucking Eric in?)
Relationships: Kyle Broflovski/Eric Cartman
Comments: 5
Kudos: 120





	Safe and Warm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [misguidedScavenger](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=misguidedScavenger).



Perhaps Eric had been expecting to wake up to a lot of things after passing out that night.

Dried blood caked to his face.

An empty stomach growling.

Shivers all over his cold body.

One hell of a fucking headache.

All kinds of discomfort. Nothing good. So he was surprised by what he woke up to instead.

A shock of auburn corkscrews, sticking up every which way.

A pair of cinnamon crescents, fluttering in fits of slumber.

A fleet of golden freckles, speckling the distinctive nose.

A soft hand, its small fingers clutching onto his mitten.

His hat had gone lopsided on his head during the night, but Eric didn’t need it to be a perfect fit to recognise who he was.

“Kyle?” Eric murmured softly, as if speaking too loudly would blow the boy’s apparition away. He couldn’t believe that it was really him, that he was really there.

Even as quiet as Eric had been, Kyle still stirred. His answering hum came out like a question, heightening as he drew it out. Eric watched with wonder as Kyle slowly opened his bleary eyes. He balled a tiny fist and brought it up to rub the sleep out as he let loose a yawn. He shifted his head when he moved his hand to fix his hat next, looking around, and stopped when Eric landed in his line of sight. Lucidity lit up his eyes, then, and with a blink he seemed to come to himself at last.

“Cartman…” Kyle lifted himself up onto his elbow to address him, although he still moved sluggishly. “Are you back to normal now? You kept going on about flat bread.” His eyelids remained heavy, and he wasn’t speaking with his usual alertness. It was kind of strange to see him like that, surreal, and Eric had half a mind to wonder if he was still asleep after all, dreaming. That would have made more sense than… _this_.

“What are you doing in my bed?” Eric asked, and then he paused. “Wait, what am _I_ doing in my bed?” He was becoming more aware of his surroundings as he continued to rouse. He saw that he still looked like he had been re-enacting a gorier scene from _Watership Down_ in his filthy rabbit costume, and his face still felt crusty with enough chicken blood to maybe put him off KFC for a day or two. He also saw that he was wrapped up all warm in his comforter though, and he couldn’t understand how _that_ had happened. Although he figured it must have had something to do with the boy before him.

“You passed out at the park,” Kyle said gently, as if he was talking to someone who just came out of a coma. “Do you remember?”

“Yeah, I… I think I got shot with a dart.” Eric touched his side to feel for the thing, but it wasn’t there. It must have fallen out at some point. Either that, or none of it had even happened. It was a wild night.

“I don’t know what happened to you,” Kyle said. “I just found you out there and brought you here.”

“You did?” Eric couldn’t remember a thing. Kyle nodded encouragingly, like Eric was his patient making a breakthrough in recovering from a case of debilitating memory loss. “But…” Eric struggled to come to terms with what Kyle was saying, his eyebrows knitting as his eyes roamed around, searching the headboard and the pillows and the sheets for answers not immediately obvious to him. “But you said you wouldn’t – help me…”

“Yeah, and I wasn’t going to,” Kyle said, a slight hint of irritation prickling his voice. He left it at that, as if that explained _anything_.

“…So?” Eric urged, matching Kyle’s irritation with his own impatience. He wanted to know already why Kyle’s previous announcement and present actions weren’t adding up.

Kyle kept his eyes locked with Eric’s in some sort of staring contest – it was always a fucking contest with this boy – and he seemed like he was going to keep his mouth locked too. The upturned eyebrows and gaping mouth of Eric’s confused face must have gotten to him eventually though, penetrating that softer side of him that just couldn’t bear to see someone struggle, because soon he dropped his gaze. His brow crinkled, and he seemed distressed, like he was being deafened by an explosive argument he was having with himself in his head. Whoever won that argument between Kyle and Kyle in the end, one thing’s for sure: it certainly wasn’t Kyle. When he spoke again, still not meeting Eric's eyes, it was with such defeat, like he was reading out the terms of his own surrender.

“…I couldn’t sleep.”

Usually when Kyle looked so vulnerable, that was Eric’s cue to tease him. It was so rare and perfect to be able to kick him when he was already down. That time, though, he found himself unable to do anything but stare, unblinking, barely even wanting to _breathe_. Eric was soft and still with curiosity, enraptured like Kyle was a book he never wanted to put down. He would not be able to read on, however, unless he was the one to turn the page.

“Why not?”

It was a simple question. It was a fair question. Yet, Kyle grit his teeth and levelled Eric with a glare, as though annoyed with him for having the audacity to ask something so infuriatingly complicated, something so ridiculously easy.

“Why do you think?” Kyle huffed. “Some idiot wearing a dumb bunny costume got himself chained up in the park in the middle of the night!”

Others might have shrunk back under Kyle’s biting tone. Eric, on the other hand, had to stop himself from leaning forward and hugging him. He was smart enough to know that Kyle wouldn’t want it, but still stupid enough to want it himself.

“…You saved me,” Eric said softly, to himself more than to his friend. He couldn’t quite believe it, it was only just starting to hit him, and he hoped that saying it out loud would make it feel more real. He looked down between them to gaze in reverence at Kyle’s hand, _still_ holding his.

Kyle seemed to only just realise that himself, turning pink, and he wasted no time and spared no feelings in pulling it away. Eric felt empty then. It was like Kyle’s hand had been the plug holding in all the warmth that Eric had been floating in, and when he had removed it, it had all drained away, leaving Eric sitting in the cold. Perhaps that was for the better though; it did help him to think clearer.

“So, wait, why _are_ you in my bed?” Eric screwed his nose up as he asked, as though appalled by the fact that everything hadn’t been added up yet and how that meant that there was still math to do. Eric hated math. Luckily, Kyle loved it. He enjoyed having all the answers, and he was more than happy to share them. Kyle never missed an opportunity to show people that he Knew Things.

“You’d been out there for a while when I found you. You were… _really_ cold.” If Eric didn’t know better, he would have said that Kyle looked almost pained while he recounted the memory, his face pinching up as if Jack Frost himself had just come along and stung him with the prick of an icy fingertip. “It snowed last night, and you were…” Kyle trailed off, like he didn’t want to continue that thought. Eric didn’t either. Good things didn’t happen to people who slept out in the snow; especially people who had nothing to fend from the cold and the wet except a thin costume, a wicker basket, and a cement block. He was glad when Kyle picked back up quickly, not wanting to get chained to that thought like a bunny-man in a park on Easter eve. “So I thought I should stay here and warm you up for a while. You know, so you didn’t get sick. But… I guess I fell asleep.”

“Oh,” Eric said. He didn’t know what else to say. All he knew was that Kyle had sure done a swell job of warming him up, because his face felt like it was on fire all of a sudden. He wanted to say thank you, but somehow it felt so cheap. Those two words could never be enough, not when Kyle had done so much.

Kyle seemed to be similarly speechless. His cheeks had gone pinker, too. They laid in awkward silence for a minute, some sort of tension hanging over their heads like a monster lurking in a park at night. They looked away from each other when it became too much. Eric looked at his hand, kind of wishing it was still full. Kyle looked out the window past Eric’s shoulder, and finally found something easy to talk about.

“It’s morning already.”

Eric turned over to look too.

“Yeah.”

They both just took a second to stare at the golden streams beaming in through the curtains. Eric never usually looked at the light, never usually turned his face to its warmth; but something about nearly being devoured by a blood-sucking monster who preyed on children made him want to just stop and enjoy the little things in life for a bit.

Eric still wasn’t sure if he’d made up that monster or if it was really real, but he decided it didn’t matter. Because Kyle was there now, and Kyle made all the monsters go away. Even the ones in Eric’s head. Especially the ones in Eric’s head.

“You’d better hurry if you want to join the egg hunt,” Kyle said too soon, because he wasn’t good at Not Saying Something. Then Eric heard him shifting across the sheets, felt the mattress dipping with the movement. He turned back over to see Kyle shuffling out of bed with his back to him, and he felt some sort of twinge in his chest.

It wasn’t a pleasant feeling. It was about as pleasant as being ditched by friends he had paid twenty bucks apiece for and taken away against his will. It was about as pleasant as being forced to strip by grocery store employees and shoved into a silly costume. It was about as pleasant as having a hard, heavy metal bar cuffed around his ankle. It was about as pleasant as being slapped in the face by a stinking, bloodied brush with harsh bristles. It was about as pleasant as watching his last hope for freedom walk away and leave him in the snow and the shame after he’d broken a promise with him.

Eric didn’t want to just watch Kyle walk away again.

“Where are you going?” he asked as he sat up in bed.

“Home,” Kyle said, shooting him an unimpressed look again, and maybe Eric deserved it that time. It _had_ been a pretty stupid question. He didn’t know why he’d asked it; except maybe to slow Kyle’s exit.

“Will you come by later?” Eric asked. Kyle just blinked at him, so he clarified, “To the egg hunt.”

“I’m not in it.” Kyle pointed at himself, as if that told Eric everything. “Jewish. Remember?”

“You don’t have to be in it,” Eric insisted, clutching his comforter, almost wishing he could get up and clutch Kyle by the shoulders instead as he told him, “you can just be – there.”

_With me._

Eric’s toes twiddled in anticipation under the comforter while Kyle seemed to think about it. He wondered why the Jew was so hung up about going, because it wasn’t like Kyle was scared of Jewpacabra getting him if he showed up. Sometimes he wondered if Kyle was even afraid of anything…

_I couldn’t sleep…_

Eric’s shoulders stiffened as he remembered just then.

_You were…_ really _cold._

Eric’s eyes widened as he remembered those quiet words.

_It snowed last night, and you were…_

Eric’s mouth gaped open as he remembered that weak voice.

_Oh._

So he was, then.

Even Kyle got scared.

Maybe not for himself, but for other people.

People who he… _cared_ about.

Eric swallowed a lump in his throat, nervous all of a sudden. He focused on Kyle once more, and felt his chest twinge again as he took the boy in.

It was a pleasant feeling that time. More pleasant than anything Eric had experienced. So pleasant he couldn’t compare it to anything else. At least, not that he could think of, anyway. He didn’t have more time to think on it though, because Kyle had come to a decision while Eric had made his own revelation, and he answered while shrugging a shoulder.

“Maybe.”

Just maybe.

It wasn’t a yes, and it wasn’t a no; but that was alright, because it was a _possibility_. Eric kind of liked that unpredictably about Kyle, that promise of defying expectations, that ability to be _different_ and _exciting_ and _special_. He liked how his words and his actions didn’t always align, like how he’d say he wouldn’t save him and then would end up doing just that. So maybe Kyle would be there, and maybe he wouldn’t; Eric just liked being kept on his toes either way.

“Okay,” Eric said, and then in case he’d sounded too lame just then he added, “Cool.”

_Christ_ , why did it matter so much to Eric: making sure that Kyle thought he was cool?

Kyle didn’t seem bothered either way. He just smiled and waved as he made his way out of the door.

“See you, Fatass.”

“Bye,” Eric said, waving too even though Kyle had already passed through the door by that point. He watched it for a second, stupidly hoping that Kyle would come back, not even sure why. But he didn’t, and Eric felt like bread gone flat. He sighed as he put his hand back down, placing it on his bed which felt too big now… Then he balked as it touched something… _new_. Even with his mitten on, he could tell it was different from the mattress, and he bowed his head to see what it was. “Huh?”

Eric lifted the comforter up so that he could get a better look, and he realised that there was a blanket under him that he hadn’t noticed earlier. He lifted the corner of it up to inspect it, since he’d never seen it before; but he didn’t have to play detective too long to guess who it must have belonged to.

“Hey, Kyle,” Eric cupped his hand around his mouth and called out, “you forgot your…” His enthusiasm for Kyle to hear him died at the end there, about as quick as it had come. It was probably too late anyway. Eric shrugged, figuring Kyle could always come get it back later, and looked back down at the blanket between his hands.

It was blue and not too big – the kind of blanket you’d be gifted at a baby shower when you were having your very own baby boy. Even though it had obviously thinned and worn over the years and washes, it was still comfortable. _Comforting_ , even. He played with it between his hands for a moment, admiring the softness as he rubbed his thumb over the material, and wondered if Kyle had ever played with his blanket like that.

…Kyle’s blanket.

Eric gazed at it fondly, like it was a friend he’d known forever. He kind of hoped Kyle wasn’t going to remember it, and would leave it there for Eric to claim as his own. At the same time, he wished that it would never stop being Kyle’s. Something about it being Kyle’s in name just made Eric having it feel so much more special. It made him feel that twinge in his chest again, the one which felt so pleasant, and he wanted to… to just…

Heady with nerves, Eric cast one last cursory look at the door, checking that the coast was clear; and when he was sure that it was, he lifted the blanket up to his face, smothering himself in it, and took a deep breath. He sighed as he came down with it, his shoulders relaxing and his eyes shutting. Then it was like everything just went away – the remains of the fear and panic and trauma he’d felt last night, the recollections of the biting cold and the snarling hunger and the howling loneliness he’d suffered. It had all been vanquished, leaving him with one thing. It was the one thing he wanted when everything else was going wrong, the one thing he knew would always be there for him when he needed him most. His spirit lived in the smell and the feel of the blanket, comforting him and making him feel safe.

“Kyle,” Eric breathed his name into the blanket, and hoped that it would stay there like a protective spell.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Easter! This was written for an Easter/Passover gift exchange in the Kyman server I'm a part of on Discord. It's dedicated to Ziv (@misguidedScavenger), a very cool and great person, and I really hope they like it.
> 
> I often think about Kyle staying the night at Eric's house after rescuing him to make sure he's okay, so it seemed only right to write a story about it. I'm worried I've made them too soft as I usually do though, haha, so please just blame it on them being sleepy! I also think about the blanket, like, all the time, so I just needed to get my feelings for it out of my system, I think.
> 
> Are you ever just going along, minding your own business, when you suddenly remember that Eric was wearing the blanket Kyle left him to comfort himself when he was upset about Token and Nichole breaking up in S16E07 'Cartman Finds Love', and then just need to lay on the floor for a hot minute? Because I do.
> 
> Thank you! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please leave a comment if you can!


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